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← Go dark · Mission 13 of 17

Your old gamer tag is still out there: find every account and clean it up

That username you made up at 14 is probably still attached to accounts you forgot existed. Sherlock checks a username on about 400 websites in around 30 seconds. Run it on yourself, find the forgotten accounts, then close or lock them down before anyone else goes looking.

42 minBeginnerTools: FreeStep 1 free
Tested 9 Oct 2026 · Sherlock 0.16.2 (installed with uv 0.11.9, Python 3.12), PowerShell, Windows 11
Sherlock installedone command checks a username on about 400 sites in around 30 seconds
A spreadsheet of every site that claims your old usernames, with clickable links
The pro trick for spotting false alarms, and a one-line filter that strips the usual suspects out of your results
  • A checklist to export, delete or lock down each old account, then check the email addresses behind them for breaches
Before you start
  • A Windows, Mac or Linux computer with an internet connection
  • A list of every username you've used: old gamer tags, the start of old email addresses, school nicknames
  • About 10 minutes to set up and search, then as long as it takes to deal with what you find
  • New to the terminal? The terminal survival kit covers everything this mission uses
01/06Install Sherlock0 done
STEP 01 of 06~4 min

Install Sherlock

Sherlock is a free, open-source command-line tool. One install command and it's ready.

  1. Sherlock is written in Python. The easiest way to install a Python tool is uv, a free installer that also fetches the right version of Python for you, so you don't need to install Python first.

  2. Open PowerShell (Windows key, type PowerShell, Enter). If you don't have uv yet, install it first:

    Windows (only if you don't have uv)
    winget install --id astral-sh.uv -e

  3. Close PowerShell, open a new one, then install Sherlock:

    Terminal
    uv tool install sherlock-project
    Output
    Resolved 19 packages in 13ms
Installed 19 packages in 2.31s
 + certifi==2026.7.22
 ...
 + sherlock-project==0.16.2
 ...
Installed 1 executable: sherlock

  4. It takes about 12 seconds the first time and uses about 93MB of disk space (plus a copy of Python, if uv has to download one). Check it worked:

    Terminal
    sherlock --version
    Output
    Sherlock v0.16.2
    Mac / Linux (the official README's method, or use uv as above)
    pipx install sherlock-project
✓
Checkpointsherlock --version prints a version number.
If it breaks'sherlock' is not recognised + 1 more
'sherlock' is not recognised
Close every PowerShell window and open a new one, so it picks up the new command. If it still fails, run uv tool update-shell, then open a new window again.
'uv' is not recognised after installing it
Same fix: open a new PowerShell window. New programs only show up in windows opened after the install.
Still stuck? Ask the community
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